Category: Clothing/Protection

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Clothing/Protection Gear Reviews

Hein Gericke Bullson Cycko Boots Review

HeinGericke-BullsonCyckoBoots1These boots are made for riding. I purchased these boots almost a year ago during the ‘closing down’ sale at Hein Gericke when the UK arm of the company went into administration. As such they were heavily reduced at cost me around £60. Consider this a long-term review of how they have fared as I’ve worn them 5 days a week for 12 months during my daily commute.

I was initially drawn to these boots as I was looking for something I could wear during the day at work without looking too obvious as motorcycle boots. The discreet black leather design fits this bill well. The Sheltex layer promised to provide waterproof protection and reinforced sole for impact protection. I took a size 11, but do have narrow feet. The fit of the boots was pretty good, but a little wide, so did necessitate yanking the strap pretty tight. The next size down was too cramped on my toes.

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Clothing/Protection Gear Reviews

Hoo Rag Bandana / Neck Gaiter Review

The wonderful people at Hoo-Rag recently sent a couple of their Bandanas in for review. Less well known here in the UK, however, the Hoo-Rag is a big product over in the US. Essentially it is a tube of material that can be worn in a multitude of different manners. As a biker, I’ve been wearing it predominantly as a neck gaiter, but of course, it need not be just for ride-outs on the motorcycle.

Hoo-What? (Why?)

The key thing about the Hoo-Rag, is it’s made from a single seamless piece of soft polyester microfiber tube. No annoying seams, or labels, just one nice stretchy, soft tube to protect your neck from the wind, cold, dust, insects and so on. Wear it around your neck, over your face, or go all ’80s rocker style and wear it as a headband or bandana. With such versatility and loads of different patterns available, there should be a Hoo-Rag to suit almost everyone. They even do one for your Dog!

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Clothing/Protection Gear Reviews

NikWax Leather Care Kit Review

NikWax Leather Care KitI picked up this kit a few months ago and have been using it every now and again to clean up and condition my leather motorcycle gear. It’s a pretty decent box of bottles covering, head to toe pretty much everything you need. You get leather cleaner, leather restorer, waterproofing wax, glove waterproofing and visor water repellent. Not a bad bundle for £20.

The glove waterproofing I used on my Gerbings XR12 gloves, as recommended in their care instructions and on my wife’s Buffalo leather gloves. The bottle has a foam top sponge dispenser type thing, which lets you apply and rub the solution all over your gloves easily. Once dry, the solution is completely invisible, but the palms did feel a little slippery on my grips for a day or two. In the wet, it performed exactly as desired, no water leaks, dry hands – job done, big thumbs up.

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Clothing/Protection

Bust Zip on Hein Gericke Jacket

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Dammit. Just broken the zip on my Hein Gericke jacket. This is the waterproof inside pocket. No idea what happened, just zipped it up, then found my keys falling out. Not good, expected better really, jacket is only 9 months old.

Might see if I can take back, however I’m not sure I still have the receipt. Not that you should need one for faulty goods. Otherwise I’ll shall gave to look into getting it repaired.

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Clothing/Protection

Ah! Warm hands again

My replacement Gerbing’s heated gloves arrived last week. Quick turnaround time again from Gerbing’s. Good stuff, but they really should be more reliable than this. Of course, sods law strikes again, Monday was fairly mild, so I found myself scrabbling to turn them down on route to work as my knuckles were burning!

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Clothing/Protection Gear Reviews

Alpinestars Gloves – Jet Road Gore-Tex Review

Alpinestars Gloves Motorcycle Jet RoadI picked these Jet Road Gore-Tex Alpinestars gloves up second-hand after being thoroughly disappointed with my Hein Gericke Pathan gloves. I opted for them based on their widespread regard on various motorcycle forums and due to their abundance on eBay cheap. As such, I found this pair in almost new condition for £30, a bargain considering they sell new for over £100.

The Alpinestars gloves are made from Gore-tex, so totally waterproof. On top of this is, there are sections of leather and a decent amount of knuckle protection. There are two Velcro straps per glove one around the wrist under a flap and one on the cuff. I found the cuff a bit on the short side and didn’t go over my jacket very well, thus letting in a draft and water. My arms are quite long though. These gloves aren’t however the latest iteration, later versions appear to resolve this with an extended storm cuff.

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Clothing/Protection

Cheap Motorcycle Gear at Aldi

Aldi-Neck-TubesThis week Aldi supermarket are doing lots of basic motorcycle gear cheap. Pop by and check it out. Details of what’s on offer can be found here.

My wife had a quick look, came back with a couple of different neck tubes. Seem reasonable, though not super thick, but very cheap. They also have some Kevlar trousers, but very thin denim and minimal padding on knees only.

Still, you might find something useful.

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Clothing/Protection

Feck My Fingers Are Numb

Gerbing Heated Gloves XR12 Hyrbid Sod’s law. The weather turns cold again and my lovely Gerbing heated gloves (XR12 Hybrid) have packed up again. 🙁

As great as they are, I’m really beginning to have doubts about their reliability. Bought them new in November (4 months ago). Two months in, one controller had an intermittent connection fault. Last week the spare controller I purchased, has started exhibiting the same problem. One hand keeps cutting in and out at random.

I dig out the replacement controller I was sent, but this one randomly won’t turn on, just flashes blue when you press the button. Apparently this means it’s getting a feed of less than 11V from the battery. OK, but why then does the other controller still turn on? And why does it start doing this after a long run and momentarily stopped for a refuel?

So I persisted with that for a week, but now my left-hand glove won’t heat up at all. From neither controller nor either wire on each. 🙁

Have sent the whole lot back for replacement. But in the meantime, it’s barely above freezing out there, I’ve reverted to my Alpinestar Jet Road gloves with woolly gloves underneath and still getting super cold hands and numb fingers after 5-10 mins on the road. I’m hoping they won’t take too long to send out replacements, they turned the last controller around in a couple of days. However, I’ve lost a lot of confidence in the Gerbing’s. Don’t get me wrong, they’re great when they work, but when you’re paying top dollar, they need to work for more than a couple of months…

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Clothing/Protection

Gerbing Controller Dying Take 2

Uh-Oh. Right hand heated glove stopped working half on route home. Appears I may have another loose connection in the controller wiring, again. 🙁  At least I have a spare now…

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Clothing/Protection

Heads up on Lidl Bargain Biker Gear

Lidl-Biker-Baselayer-topCheck out your local Lidl store next week, they’re doing a bunch of biker gear cheap. Lids, boots, gloves and thermal base layers. The Lids, gloves and boots look a bit cheap and probably only worth bothering with for occasional pillion use. However the thermal base layers look decent. Although the worst of the winter is over, it’s still pretty chilly out there, so will still be useful before next winter. Offer starts Feb 28th, but be quick, once the stock has gone, that’ll be it.